U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have written a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressing their “serious concerns” about reports that Google waited six months before notifying the public of a data breach that exposed the private information of nearly 500,000 users participating in the Google+ social media network.
The Senators also questioned the effect a longstanding consent order with the Federal Trade Commission will have on the company following the intrusion.
“Despite Google’s assertions that “none of the thresholds were met” to require notifications of such a breach, internal memos reviewed by the Wall Street Journal I ndicate Google’s leadership was aware of the seriousness of this issue and made a conscious, overt decision to keep this data exposure a secret,” said the senators. “At a time when Americans’...